Garuda Indonesia will finally begin taking delivery of six completed Boeing 737-300/500s parked in the USA, following a long-awaited guarantee from the Indonesian finance ministry on lease financing.
Delivery of the aircraft has been on hold since August after demands from the US Eximbank for a guarantor to agree to underwrite the lease-financing deal. The finance ministry had resisted providing the loss-making national carrier with any further assistance.
Garuda now expects to receive four 737-500s and a single -300 by the end of December. A fifth -500, retained in the USA for rudder tests by the manufacturer, will follow in 1998. The remaining 11 -300s on order are scheduled for delivery by the end of 1998.
Boeing had originally been due to deliver the first aircraft in August. The 17 aircraft were a trade-in on unfilled orders for one 747-400 and nine 737-400s.
The airline, in the meantime, is considering competing purchase tenders for four General Electric CF6-powered Boeing DC-10-30s and will decide on a buyer by the end of the year. Garuda is also seeking bids for the disposal in 1998 of its four 747-200s and five remaining Airbus Industrie A300B4s. Three other B4s have already been sold and leased back for five years.
Its long-term intention is to standardise the fleet around the 747-400, 737-300/500, A330-300 and the planned purchase of six Boeing 777-200s. Garuda is understood to be seeking to trade in its six existing leased Boeing MD-11s for the 777s, tentatively due for delivery in 2000.
Source: Flight International
